Jets Grades Forwards Line 2
The second line of the Jets as the season finished was far from what it started as at the beginning the of the season. It went went from Stafford Scheifele Ehlers to Stafford, Burmistrov Dano by the end. In some ways that combination had some some success but it took time and a feeling out period as Marko Dano had to be integrated into the line up and get some feeling for his new roles and team mates.
The other thing that happened was Alexander Burmistrov coming out of a sort of funk or basically 3/4 of a season of ‘meh’. Yes that rather terrible word does an effective job at detailing what Burmi provided for much of the season.
Then there was Drew Stafford, he of the Oli Jokinen deal, who came to the Jets in the Evander Kane and Zach Bogosian trade. The same guy who shot pucks late last season at a 22% success rate. He did okay too but was hardly the two-way player the Jets needed in much of the games this season. Let’s start with Stafford.
Drew Stafford
The wily vet had 21 goals this season and a whopping 38 points total and his best goal total since 2011-12. However that does not tell the full story with Stafford. If you like the basic stats he was also a -23. But that stat is a mess.
At even strength this past season Stafford had a CF% of 51.38%- so positive but his PDO was 95.3 so something was going wrong or was he just as unlucky as he was lucky last year. Stafford had a somewhat respectable P/60 of 1.37 but hardly a rate to jump up and down about. Where we see some issue that might lie with PDO is that he was negative for Scoring Change differential giving up more than he created or helped create when he was on the ice.
If we look at High Danger scoring chances the pictures becomes a bit uglier as Stafford was -30 in differential and was at 46.36% when on the ice. What does this mean? Teams probably like facing Stafford as he helps give up chances and does not play a very effective two-way game.
So at 4.5 million Stafford did what management probably expected and scored 20+ goals but that was the high point for him.
Grade B-
Alexander Burmistrov
He was going to fill in the role left by the vacated Michael Frolik, hopefully. As you’ve seen in this space, hope is never a good plan. It did not happen and while there is no question the young Russian has some skill and talent it seems to never materialize like it should in a top 10 draft pick.
So after 2 years in the KHL, and two years that were rather unspectacular, Brumistrov came back and out and put up 7 goals and 14 assists for 21 points. In some ways it was more of what many fans and media considered to be underperforming.
Burmistrov’s CF% at even strength was 48.12% and his PDO was 96.78. To compound his P/60 was an even 1. However late in the season something began to change for the young Russian. As injuries mounted for the Jets his role and line mates changed. No longer saddled alongside Thorburn and the underperforming Lowry Burmistrov began to take off, relativelt speaking.
From Mar 1 2016 on he was a 53.54% CF and had a P/60 at 1.7. Something changed and it was not just what fans were seeing on the ice- the stats back up what they saw. Whether unshackled from dead weight or finding his groove, Burmistrov became a more dangerous and complete player as he switched to his more natural centre position.
Grade C
Marko Dano
Coming over from Chicago as the centrepiece in the trade for Andrew Ladd Dano had big shoes to fill. Believed to be an under-performing player due to two trades in less than a year the young Austrian showed he has some upside in his short stint in Winnipeg. The fact that Blackhawks head coach Joel Quennville never seemed to trust the forward meant his time in Chicago was probably limited and thus he was expendable.
In his 36 games this season Dano posted a CF of 53.86% but had a low PDO at 95.17 when playing at even strength. Of those 36 games 21 were spent with the Jets and in that time Dano had a CF of 53.44% and P/60 of 1.65 which is up from his season total of 1.43.
So when looking at his split time between Chicago and Winnipeg Dano looks like this:
P/60 .98 Chicago 1.65 Winnipeg
CF 54.62% Chicago 53.44% Winnipeg
Shooting % 6.67 Chicago 10.81 Winnipeg
Dano had some favourable minutes and line mates in Winnipeg and a few more games (6) but we’re still working with a small sample size. What there is, is reason to be optimistic about him and where he can be with the Jets next season. Will he fit in the same role? That’s up to him and Maurice but it would appear that as the Jets get younger Dano could be a part of that transition and an important one too.
Grade B-
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
Join the Discussion:
»